| There exists a large number of disputes between States over claims to jurisdiction over maritime areas. These disputed maritime areas can be the result of either disagreement about the delimitation of areas of overlapping claims or of disputed sovereignty over land territory generating maritime jurisdictional zones. The existence of disputed maritime areas raises the questions of which activities may be conducted there and which State is entitled to exercise jurisdiction over such activities. In a number of cases the coastal States involved have, pending the reaching of final agreement on the delimitation or on solving the territorial dispute, agreed on provisional arrangements governing the conduct of activities in the disputed area. However, in many cases this has not been achieved and thus there is uncertainty about which activities may be undertaken there (by claimant States or third States) and which State may exercise jurisdiction. The proposed research will attempt to clarify the current rules of international law governing the conduct of activities in disputed maritime areas which are not covered by provisional arrangements agreed by the claimant States, and to make suggestions for the further development of the law. |
